Summaries of Published Opinions
| Publication year | 2019 |
| Pages | 128 |
COLORADO SUPREME COURT
July 1, 2019
2019 CO 68. No. 16SA291. City and County of Denver v. Consolidated Ditches of Water District No. 2.
Water Law—Priorities—Exchange and Substitution Operations.
Under a 1940 water use agreement, the City and County of Denver, acting by and through its Board of Water Commissioners (Denver), agreed, in lieu of making releases from certain streambed reservoirs to replace seepage and evaporation losses, not to reuse or successively use return flows from water imported from the Western Slop e. Earlier litigation established that this reuse prohibition in the 1940 agreement applies only to return flows derived from decreed water rights from Colorado River sources with appropriation dates before May 1, 1940; Denver may therefore use return flows derived from sources that were appropriated or acquired after that date. The question in this appeal was whether the 1940 agreement prohibits Denver from using return flows from water imported from the Blue River system under exchange and substitution operations decreed in 1955 and administered under a 1946 priority date using water stored in the Williams Fork Reservoir under a 1935 priority as a substitute supply.
Because the water imported through the Roberts Tunnel under Blue River exchange and substitution operations is a source acquired by Denver after May 1, 1940, the Supreme Court concluded that the resulting return flows are not subject to the 1940 Agreement and Denver may reuse and successively use them. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the water court's judgment and decree.
2019 CO 69. No. 17SC595. Ho ward-Walker v. People.
Cumulative Error.
In this case, the Supreme Court concluded that a division of the Court of Appeals erred by supplementing this Court's cumulative error standard with case law from federal courts. The Court reaffirmed that the proper standard for analyzing cumulative error claims stems from Oaks v. People, 371 P.2d 443 (Colo. 1962).
Applying that standard, the Court concluded that the cumulative prejudicial effect of various trial errors deprived defendant of a fair trial. Accordingly, the Court reversed the judgment of conviction and remanded for a new trial.
2019 CO 70. No. 17SA285. Diehl v. Weiser.
Habeas Corpus—Parole Eligibility.
The Supreme Court determined how the Department of Corrections (DOC) should...
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